America's Bureaucracy of Truth

Americans who are exasperated by the low level of professionalism in the mainstream media would do well to take a glance at the mother of all media lunacies, the Soviet Union. For instance, readers of the 1 October 1979 edition of Pravda, a Soviet newspaper meaning "truth," were greeted on page one by a fervently argued two-column (out of eight) editorial calling for "higher standards in political and economic work" while excoriating slackers for their lack of discipline and interest in the great "cause of building communism." The main news item was a headline story entitled "Harvest Completed," which is not exactly hot-off-the-presses news but undoubtedly comforting nonetheless, and a lot less trouble for Pravda's editors to put into print. And if this isn't enough to excite your senses, how about that front page picture of a ball bearing plant in Moscow? Be still my heart.
This raises the question about the current relevance of a defunct newspaper from a defunct empire, about...(Read Full Article)